The book was exactly what I was looking for. Help with the how to on the technical side,but was helpful on setting up shots. Looking around my house and seeing how the book would "shoot it" then applying it with my DSLR. Composition and Lighting was extremly helpful to me. This book was well worth my investment.

I've read this book from cover to cover. I love it. As a beginning photographer, this book was very helpful. Not a lot of technical info. Just enough guidance to get me going on my own.

Having three daughters, documenting their childhood with photographs is a real priority for me. But I really lacked knowledge on how to take good photographs - I always relied on the auto settings on my camera and the pictures seemed so ordinary. In the attempt to learn more about photography, I purchased this book along with a couple of others. This book, by far, was the most helpful for me. I had been having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concepts of aperture and ISO, but this book really helped me understand! Each picture listed the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, which helped me see what those things were doing to affect how the picture looked. Also, the pictures were so inspiring and gave me tons of ideas on composition. The assignments at the end of each chapter were helpful in developing my skills. The book was very pleasent to read and it's definitely a book for parents aspiring to become better photographers! My only wish was that the pictures also listed what type of lens was used (so that I could buy it and have the lenses that the professionals used!).

In addition to Ginny's inspirational photography I found this wonderful book to be informative beyond taking portraits of children. I am new to photography and found lots of ideas and tips for taking better photos of any subject. An additional bonus is the assignments at the end of each chapter to put the techniques into practice. This is a book that I will refer to often. I highly recommend this and look forward to more books by this photographer.

Put this wonderful book in your shopping cart and hit "buy now" as soon as you can. I wish that I had had this wonderful tool twenty years ago when I was starting my children's portrait business. Each chapter really guides you through the tools that you will need to succeed in taking impressive images of children. If you take it seriously, and do the assignments, you just might start seeing things in a different light, so to speak. Whether you just want to capture whimsical images of your own child as he passes through the phases of childhood, or if you truly intend to make photography more than a passion, but a business, then this book will take you to your desired level.Every page will delight you with amazing images of children. The various contributing photographers offer individual treatments to their subjects showing you a variety of what is plesaing. Read it, work it, absorb it and find your place in this fascinating field. I can't get enough of the timeless beach portraits found in Chapter 7.

Capturing our children, or as a photographer another person's child, is really one of the most important things one can do. In doing so we are providing a legacy and memory for ourselves and future generations. This book does an excellent job of guiding the novice and the professional in how to best capture children as they are. It provides technical information but more importantly provides you with ideas and assignments that will challenge you to use not only the camera but your heart and life experience to take great images of children. I couldn't find a book that was this easy to understand and this encouraging when I was starting out in the children's photography business and so I was very honored to provide images for this book when asked by the author. There are many years of experience and a great heart behind the words in this book so I would highly encourage anyone interested in photographing children to read it.

I read this book as it was being written because I worked with Ginny while I was at Wiley. I was lucky enough to have her use me as her test market for the book because I was a beginning photographer with an 8 year old daughter. I wanted to take memorable photos of my girl, not just posed, ordinary pictures. Ginny's photos inspired me and the way she described in her chapters how to take those unique photos really helped me see portraits and candid shots in a different way. With Ginny's instructions on using light on a face, I took a shot last summer that my family framed. It's lovely - I owe it all to Ginny!

I have a digital camera set to auto and I am an impatient, amateur photographer whose subjects are primarily wiggly, athletic grandchildren.
This book presents techniques that are easy to learn and teaches through simple steps and abundant beautiful photographs. I have become a pro overnight and this book made it happen.

This book was wonderful in helping me figure out what I was doing wrong, and how to do it right. I have been a closet photographer for most of my life, and had been disappointed by many of my efforts, basically, because I didn't know what I was doing wrong or how to change it. When I had my son, I started taking pictures of him at a break neck pace, and while I got a good shot every 20-30 pictures, I was looking to better return on me effort. This book was the key to that. The pictures in the book are really beautiful too. I highly recommend this book.